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TechRadar Verdict
This revolutionary approach to vinyl replay delivers truly exceptional results, with a clean, sweet clarity. A wide range of feature options are available, the only disadvantage being the very high initial purchase price
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Radical approach brings an exceptionally sweet and clean sound to vinyl replay
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Freedom from time-smear
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Unusually good vocal intelligibility
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Price is very high
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Dynamics could perhaps be more vigorous and exciting
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Styling leaves something to be desired
Why you can trust TechRadar
The Soundsmith Strain Gauge phono cartridge, as the name unequivocally points out, uses strain gauge elements to 'read' the vinyl groove – changing the rules completely. The magnetic principles that have hitherto been almost universal need no longer apply.
Strain gauge cartridges aren't new, however. The idea and the occasional example has been around since the euphonics Miniconic back in the 1960s. Sao Win reintroduced the idea in the 1970s, but neither of these had a very noticeable impact on the marketplace.
That might well be because the market simply wasn't ready. The amplifiers of the time had built-in phono stages specifically intended for various types of magnetic cartridges, complete with RIAA equalisation, because magnetic cartridges read groove velocity.
However, a strain gauge cartridge is totally different. it requires an external power source to operate (it's not a transducer) and it uses what effectively amounts to a Wheatstone bridge to measure displacement rather than velocity.
That serious amplification consigns phono stages to entirely separate units almost as a matter of course. The idea of purchasing a phono cartridge with an accompanying box of electronics no longer seems strange – perhaps the strain gauge cartridge's time has come at last.
In essence, a strain gauge uses semi-conductor elements that change their resistance when subjected to deflection by a force. By measuring this change in resistance, the cartridge 'measures' the motion of the stylus in the groove.
It does this by means of a special pre-amplifier that feeds an electrical current into the cartridge, then measuring what comes out. This explains the distinctive little blue lights that shine from the front of the cartridge.
Apart from needing that separate specialist preamp unit and its substantial outboard power supply, the Strain Gauge looks and behaves like most normal cartridges. It doesn't need any more than the four wires normally fitted to any tonearm, which is very convenient. However, it does have a couple of extra features that are not normally found on high-end cartridges.
The first extra is the presence of two stiff little screws that adjust cartridge azimuth and VTA. The second is a detachable stylus assembly, held in place by powerful magnets and useful for those interested in vintage 78s.
No fewer than six interchangeable stylus assemblies are available and all are relatively inexpensive by high-end cartridge standards. Even the most costly SGS-6, with ruby cantilever and nude line-contact stylus, costs less than £500.
However, the cheapest complete Strain Gauge package, including the cartridge, the essential pre-amplifier unit and its outboard power supply, starts at a much more substantial £6,100, while the full feature top model doubles that to £12,200.
All the preamplifiers have the same rather nostalgic casework, with hardwood trim, routed grooves and bright multi-coloured lighting. Even the basic SG-400 version reviewed here has an additional stereo analogue input, a by-passable volume control and comprehensive defeatable muting features.
More costly models add part and full remote control, a much more comprehensive range of preamp inputs, plus dynamic displays of downforce, optimum bias compensation, and disc warps and record eccentricity indicators. The electrical output has a fixed high pass 'rumble' filter below 12Hz.
PREAMP: One of Soundsmith's Strain Gauge preamps
Although it's possible to connect the Strain Gauge as a preamp, connected directly to a power amplifier, using its own volume control and feeding other sources via its analogue inputs, the sound in our system was preferred when it was simply used as a fixed output single-ended line level source, feeding Naim NAC552/NAP500 amplification. Balanced outputs are also available.
The SG-400 arrived fitted with the SGS-6 'optimised contour' stylus assembly. Whatever stylus used, the Strain Gauge cartridge seems to have a very low moving mass and very little internal damping. These are both probably good things, as damping seems to introduce subjective time-smear.
Aided by the sensibly square shape, fitting and aligning the cartridge in our Rega RB1000 tonearm was easily, quickly and successfully accomplished, helped by very detailed instructions. Incidentally, the RB1000 is mounted on a hybrid Linn/Rega turntable.
POWER: A Soundsmith Strain Gauge power amp
Measurements at 1.8g downforce gave very positive results, showing an essentially smooth and flat response, only disturbed by a slight rise at high frequencies above 10kHz, with a modest peak of about +2dB at 15khz. channel balance was close; stereo separation was wide; and the LF resonance in a 14g effective mass tonearm occurred around 12Hz.
Sound quality
We could describe the sound of this cartridge with a number of different adjectives – and nearly all of them highly complimentary. in a very real sense, it seems to combine the best qualities of both vinyl and CD, with the sweetness and detail of the former, alongside the smooth, clean clarity of the latter.
Alongside an impressive freedom from time-smear, smoothness and overall neutrality are two of the Strain Gauge's more striking characteristics. In this respect, it makes most conventional cartridges sound relatively coloured and untidy. Surface noise on ageing, well-played discs is still audible, but rarely intrusive and doesn't seem to get in the way of the music.
Maybe it's just a little too smooth and dynamic expression a little constrained, but background noise is very low indeed, so the actual dynamic range is wide. Since installing the Strain Gauge, we've also found it much easier to comprehend previously obscure lyrics, especially from artists like Tom Waits and Bob Dylan.
Stereo imaging is first class, with superior stability, fine focus and precise positioning. Central image focus is particularly impressive and the stereo soundstage has fine depth perspectives. We encountered no tracking problems whatsoever in months of use, at a 1.8g downforce.
It should be pointed out, however, that the Strain Gauge takes no prisoners. Although many recordings sound wonderful, poor recording practices such as excessive compression are not disguised and their inadequacies are ruthlessly revealed.
It's also a shame that this cartridge is quite so expensive, but we'd argue that you can have few regrets about purchasing something that completely changes one's vinyl and hi-fi listening experience for the better.
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In a recent post to CodeForest Luka Peharda shows you how to create a JSON-RPC frontend for your application based on the Zend Framework.
XML-RPC rules, but the amount of data it generates is its big disadvantage. This is where JSON-RPC steps in. Data it generates is significally smaller, but this isn't suprising as JSON is known as fat free XML.This articles is based on my earlier Android XML-RPC article. Its PHP code and Zend Framework setup will be used so you should go through it if you haven't earlier (at least as far as XMLRPC Android client chapter).
You need to have some of the base code from the previous article in place to follow along, but if you're experienced with Zend Framework, keeping up won't be a problem. He uses this JSON-RPC client that was made for use with a ZF application and creates a basic jsonAction to handle the request. He then uses this Android JSON-RPC library to connect from the Android application and fetch some basic data.

subset: commoncrawl


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Matthew records Jesus saying:
Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?' And then will I declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.'—Matthew 7:21-23 (ESV)
Meanwhile, Peter (in Acts 2:21) and Paul (in Romans 10:13) quote Joel:
And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as the LORD has said, and among the survivors shall be those whom the LORD calls.—Joel 2:32 (ESV)
Did Jesus mean something different than Joel (and Peter and Paul), did he disagree with the prophet, or did he not know (or remember) the prophecy?


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Elizabeth Anderson is John Dewey Distinguished Professor of Philosophy and Women's Studies at the University of Michigan. She is the author most recently of The Imperative of Integration. This contribution extends a question posed in a recent post on the conservative war on poor people (link). Thanks for contributing, Liz!
American Conservative Politics and the Long Shadow of Slavery
Elizabeth Anderson
An "outright Marxist!" That's what Rafael Cruz, Senator Ted Cruz's father, declared of President Obama on the campaign trail in April 2013. His accusation is common on the right. Google "Obama Marxist" and you will get about 4.95 million results. "Obama communist" yields 40 million. It's a strange charge against a man who vigorously supported the bail-out of Wall Street banks as a Senator, and expanded it to other major firms as President. Yet the charge is nothing new. Conservatives have long accused anyone to their left of communism or fellow-traveling. Rick Perlstein traces this practice back to the 1950s.
In fact, it goes back a century before. George Fitzhugh, author of the famous proslavery tract Cannibals All! wrote a letter to William Lloyd Garrison in 1856 declaring that "every theoretical abolitionist at the North is a Socialist or Communist." J. H. Thornwell, one of the most distinguished ministers of the antebellum South, delivered a sermon in 1850 on "The Rights and Duties of Masters," in which he characterized the conflict over slavery as one in which slaveholders, Christians, and the "friends of order and regulated freedom" stood together against "abolitionists, atheists, socialists, communists, red republicans, [and] jacobins" who were united on the other side.
This fact about the origins of one aspect of conservative rhetoric opens a window to the larger structure of American conservative thought. Consider Romney's notorious 47% speech:
There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president . . . who are dependent upon government . . . who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing . . . . These are people who pay no income tax . . . . I'll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.
This was spoken by a presidential candidate who supported the Wall Street bailouts, who did not complain about massive state subsidies to wealthy farmers or the oil and coal industries, and who paid 14.1% of his income in federal taxes—less than the 15.3% effective payroll tax for Social Security and Medicare that falls on wage workers, over and above the income tax. Counting state and local taxes, which are highly regressive, we have good reason to believe that the 47% he resents pay substantially higher total tax rates than the top 1%.
Romney, however, knew his audience. Tax breaks and subsidies for better-off whites are not what most conservatives oppose. Their core objection is "free stuff" thought to disproportionately benefit blacks, Latinos, immigrants, and other traditionally subordinated groups. As Lee Atwater explained, the Republican party's "Southern Strategy" for winning white voters is all about opposing policies that disproportionately help blacks and promoting policies that disproportionately hurt them:
You start out in 1954 by saying, "N-ger, n-ger, n-ger." By 1968 you can't say "n-ger" — that hurts you. Backfires. So you say stuff like forced busing, states' rights and all that stuff. You're getting so abstract now [that] you're talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you're talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is [that] blacks get hurt worse than whites.
While conservatives, even those belonging to or sympathetic to the Tea Party, support Social Security and Medicare, they condemn programs such as means-tested welfare, which are perceived as disproportionately benefiting blacks and Latinos, whom they see as undeserving. A key driver of public opinion on domestic policy in the U.S. is racial resentment: in particular, the idea that blacks are too lazy to take responsibility for their lives but want to live off the hard-earned wealth of whites, either through crime or the public dole.
My current research on abolitionism and the struggle for free labor finds that this idea has been a deep theme of American conservative opinion since before the Civil War. Although in the antebellum era, racists typically supposed that blacks were incapable of taking care of themselves, while today they are thought to be willfully refusing to do so, the complaints about black behavior are remarkably similar. In response to an emancipation petition submitted to the Virginia legislature, hundreds of citizens submitted proslavery petitionsin 1795. Echoing other petitions, this one from the free whites of Lunenberg County worried that emancipation would bring
Want, Poverty, Distress and ruin to the free Citizen; the Horrors of all the rapes, Robberies, Murders, and Outrages, which an innumerable Host of unprincipled, unpropertied, vindictive and remorseless Banditte are capable of perpetrating; Neglect, famine and Death to the abandoned black Infant, and superannuated Parent; inevitable Bankruptcy to the revenue; Desperation and revolt to the disappointed, oppressed Citizen; and sure and final ruin to this once happy, free, and flourishing Country . . . .
Thomas Dew, in his 1832 article "Abolition of Negro Slavery," predicted that abolition would lead blacks to idleness, drunkenness, destitution, and thence to crime. William Harper predicted in Cotton is King, an 1860 compendium of proslavery thought, that emancipation would reduce blacks to paupers and lead them "from petty to greater crimes, until all life and property would be rendered insecure," and that if they got the vote, they "would be used by unprincipled politicians" to advance dangerous schemes.
White conservatives saw their fears confirmed during Reconstruction. This cartoon reveals their view of the Freedman's Bureau, described as "an agency to keep the Negro in idleness at the expense of the white man:
Then it was the Freedman's Bureau. Today it is food stamps, Medicaid, and Obamacare.
Not only the content, but the style and emotional register of conservative politics have been constant. The hysteria, apocalyptic sensibility, and intransigence of Tea Party conservatives on full display in the recent government shutdown crisis (complete with a confederate flag) mirrors that of the South in the run-up to the Civil War through the Reconstruction Era. American conservatism continues to operate under the long shadow of slavery and its legacy.


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Best Present Ever
Jane's grandchildren are always excited to learn about her extensive travels around the globe. They keep track of her journeys via a world map posted on her refrigerator marked with color-coded flags: red flags mark places she has visited, yellow flags mark her favorite places and blue flags mark the next destination she will visit.
Watch the video below to find out what happened during a special "blue flag ceremony" when Jane tells the children she will be traveling to Tanzania on a family safari.


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DR-484 (Senate Bill 224)
Current Year's Budget Union County (2023 - 2024) DR-484 (pdf) This information was derived from data which was compiled by the Union County Property Appraiser's Office solely for the governmental purpose of property assessment. This information should not be relied upon by anyone as a determination of the ownership of property or market value. No warranties, expressed or implied, are provided for the accuracy of the data herein, it's use, or it's interpretation. Although it is periodically updated, this information may not reflect the data currently on file in the Property Appraiser's office. The assessed values are NOT certified values and therefore are subject to change before being finalized for ad valorem assessment purposes. © Union County Property Appraiser | Bruce D. Dukes | Lake Butler, Florida | 386-496-3431 by GrizzlyLogic.com (T3)
Current Year's Budget
Union County (2023 - 2024) DR-484 (pdf)


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Stylish understated elegance describes this silver plated letter opener. Its innovative design begins in a slender tip increasing in width while curving slightly to fit naturally and comfortably in the palm of your hand for overall dimensions of 8.75" x 1".
This distinctively styled silver letter opener will make a perfect gift for many special occasions and for various individuals. Select this simple but stylish design for several people whom you wish to remember. Our free engraving services make it simple to add the names or initials of each person on your gift list.
Average Ratings:
"Contemporary Silver Letter Opener - Excellent Choice!"
Laura Clements Dixon
Comments: Love the shape, wonderful heft, includes free engraving (limited number of characters). My order was for a college grad gift and she's very pleased.
"Great item"
Millie Kellogg
Comments: I was very surprised with how nice the item is. The picture does not do it any justice. Heavy in the hand and very practical.
"Nice product"
Jaimy Holmes
Comments: Received my product in a timely manner and depicted exactly as on the website with very nice engraving.
"Great gift!"
Comments: This letter opener is very gracious and delicate and made the perfect gift with the engraved monogram on it. My friend loves it!
Comments: Both this product and the service were great. Will order again when I need a personalized gift.
>> Read all product reviews [5] | Write your own review


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Teaching Teens Money Management Basics
Stroll the shopping mall during a weekend and you'll see streams of teenagers. They're in clothing stores, fast-food restaurants, nail salons, video stores and other shops. They certainly know how to spend money, but do they know the value of money?
Maybe not. A 2007 survey of teens by Charles Schwab & Co. found less than half (40%) are able to budget their money effectively. Only one in three could read a bank statement, balance a checkbook and pay bills. While 45% of the teens surveyed know how to use credit cards, only 26% understand how credit-card rates and fees work.
If you're the parent of a teen, your son or daughter would benefit from guidance on how to manage their finances. The Schwab survey reveals that most teens (more than 80%) want to learn more about budgeting, saving and investing, paying their bills and staying out of debt.
Our professional credit credit counselors have put together the following lesson plan for parents seeking to help their teens master the "ABCs" of good finances.
A is for Account Management
Help your teen to select a bank and open a checking account. Review with your teenager how to manage their account properly. Remind your teen to record every purchase and withdrawal, balance the account each month, and refrain from drawing on funds until they are available. Discuss how to use debit and ATM cards responsibly.
Stress the importance of monitoring financial accounts on a regular basis. This will help your teen keep a handle on their balance and budget. and budget. If your teen's bank offers online banking, they can view their account at any time and need not wait for the monthly paper statement.
Discuss how to protect their financial account information. Your teen should refrain from leaving account statements or PIN numbers strewn about their room or stuck to their ATM card or computer screen. In fact, they should never be written down at all. Teach them the importance of never sharing their account information or bankcards with friends and always use privacy/security measures when shopping or banking online.
B is for Budgeting
Help your teen set up a budget to track spending. Begin with income. Help your son or daughter calculate how much money is available from an allowance, a part-time job, or other revenue sources. Next, help project what he or she needs each month for school supplies, clothing, entertainment, food, and other expenses. Separate the "wants" from the "needs." Your teen would benefit from tracking expenses for a month to see how much they typically spend.
Show them how to modify the plan to make ends meet. What expenses can be eliminated? Perhaps your teen would prefer to increase their income, rather than cut expenses. Do they plan to get a job? Are you willing to increase their allowance, in return for their doing more chores, or for their taking responsibility for clothing purchases or other necessities?
Emphasize the importance of savings. The earlier your teen starts getting into the savings habit, the better. Encourage your son or daughter to save a specific amount of money each month. It will teach them how compound interest works. It's also a good way to demonstrate how deferring immediate wants (new video game, pizzas) can eventually fund a bigger "prize" (Ipod, laptop computer, used car).
C is for Credit
Explain that credit is not the same as cash. It is not unusual for teens to be offered credit cards, particularly college students. Instruct your child on how interest rates, late fees and other charges are incurred that can increase what they owe. They need to know that small purchases can balloon into huge card balances if they constantly "charge it" and make only minimum monthly payments.
If you think they're ready for a credit card, teach them how to choose one. Show them how to research the best credit card for their purposes. Discuss how to compare annual fees, interest rates, grace periods, late fees and other charges.
Stress that a credit card is one small part of an overall financial plan. Having a credit card does not relieve your teen of the responsibility or setting spending priorities, exercising fiscal restraint, and establishing a good credit record.
Discuss the importance of repaying debt in a timely and responsible fashion. Help your teen master the basics of debt management. Discuss paying bills on time; making more than the minimum payment due; and, avoiding missed or late payments that result in costly fees and can negatively affect their credit record.
A final word of advice: Encourage your teen to come to you if they end up in a financial bind. Then, work with them to take corrective action. Don't hesitate to seek the assistance of a reputable credit counseling agency, like Clearpoint Credit Counseling Solutions. We can help to educate the whole family about budget and financial issues.
Helping to put your teen on the road to financial stability is a gift that will last a lifetime.


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Not all poets admire (or aspire to to be like) Catullus; for a different point of view, here's a lovely poem suggested by :
(Poem #1467) From A Letter From Lesbia ... So, praise the gods, Catullus is away! And let me tend you this advice, my dear: Take any lover that you will, or may, Except a poet. All of them are queer. It's just the same -- a quarrel or a kiss Is but a tune to play upon his pipe. He's always hymning that or wailing this; Myself, I much prefer the business type. That thing he wrote, the time the sparrow died -- (Oh, most unpleasant -- gloomy, tedious words!) I called it sweet, and made believe I cried; The stupid fool! I've always hated birds ... |
Catullus may have brought about a revolution in Latin verse by "[rejecting] the epic and its public themes ... [and using] colloquial language to write about personal experience" [1]. But it's clear that to some people, at least, he took the process altogether too far. Dorothy Parker skewers the typical self-absorption of the poet quite brilliantly -- though in a nice irony, what is her own poem but a declaration of personal preferences? thomas. [1] www.poets.org, quoted at greater length in the commentary to Catullus' fifth Song, Minstrels Poem #1463. [Links] One imagines that Dorothy Parker would have enjoyed reading Wendy Cope's "Being Boring" (Poem #1444), and indeed, there's something delightfully Cope-ish about today's poem. Other Parkers: Poem #150, Resume Poem #192, Comment Poem #486, Epitaph for a Darling Lady Poem #560, Chant for Dark Hours Poem #638, Song of Perfect Propriety Poem #697, A Well Worn Story Poem #878, Frustration Poem #1090, Unfortunate Coincidence Poem #1460, Love Song Other Copes: Poem #587, Strugnell's Rubaiyat Poem #693, Strugnell's Haiku Poem #859, Waste Land Limericks Poem #1059, An Unusual Cat-Poem Poem #1323, Strugnell's Sonnets (VI) The sparrow referred to by Parker/Lesbia is this one: http://www.bartleby.com/245/85.html The Daily Telegraph ran a Catullus translation competition based on the sparrow poem; here are the winners: [broken link] http://www.friends-classics.demon.co.uk/poetry.htm More dead sparrow poems: http://www.lyrics.net.ua/song/34358 http://eir.library.utoronto.ca/rpo/display/poem1943.html


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NAYPYITAW, Myanmar, May 30 (UPI) -- At least 25 people were arrested in connection with sectarian riots in northern Myanmar this week, authorities said.
Local officials in Lashio were cited by China's official Xinhua News Agency as saying at least 25 people were being questioned for their role in riots that left at least one person dead and five others injured.
All of those detained are from Lashio, though authorities said they were checking the city's gates to ensure that instigators hadn't come from surrounded areas.
A dusk-to-dawn curfew was imposed this week in response to the violence. Buddhists tried Thursday to tear down a home owned by Muslims, however.
More than a dozen shops and two mosques were set on fire during riots in Lashio this week. Riots were sparked Tuesday by the arrest of a man who allegedly set a gasoline vendor on fire.
Violence between Buddhists and Muslims has overshadowed political developments in Myanmar. Xinhua didn't report on the religious affiliation of the suspect or the vendor.
International sanctions pressure has eased on Myanmar in response to democratic reforms that began with general elections in 2010. Human rights groups have expressed concern that easing economic pressure could prompt Myanmar authorities to take security less seriously.


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Ongoing Projects
Economic Development Studies
To help implement the vision for a sustainable, transit-oriented future, the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) is partnering with El Monte to apply for the High Quality Transit Area (HQTA) Analysis Project, to develop HQTA Vision Plans that will identify active transportation improvements, redevelopment strategies, and implementation plans to help communities take full advantage of the transit investment, and tap into regional and state funding opportunities and technical support. The overall goal will be to develop plans that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and vehicle miles traveled.
As part of a Metro grant, the City of El Monte will be working with SCAG and Metro staff to develop a study assessing the feasibility of creating tax increment financing districts [Community Revitalization and Investment Areas (CRIA) or Enhanced Infrastructure Financing Districts (EIFD)], which can help fund economic development and infrastructure.
Billion Dollar Initiative
The City of El Monte is on the move. Learn about the current investments taking place throughout the community, including the Gateway development at El Monte Bus Station, Norms and the Downtown revitalization effort.
Billion Dollar Initiative (PDF)Gateway Development Proposal (PDF)"Is Norms restaurant really coming to El Monte this time?" [SGVT]
Invest in El Monte
Looking to become part of the El Monte community? We'd love to work with you, whether you're starting or growing your business, or looking to locate your new project in the city.
Learn about El MonteStarting a BusinessDevelopment Opportunity Sites (PDF)
Sewer Replacement Improvement Project
The City of El Monte is planning to replace aging sewer mains in the Nevada Avenue - Bodger Street neighborhood. For more information, use the link provided.
Nevada Avenue - Bodger Street Sewer Replacement Improvement Project (PDF)


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Sensient's natural apple flavors to plug 'positive nutrition' desires
The flavor range – spanning ten different apple types – can be used for a wide variety of foods and beverages, including snacks, baked goods and cereals. Variants include Braeburn, Golden Delicious, Granny smith and Fuji with apple origin spanning the globe from New Zealand, Australia, Japan, Canada and the US.
"Through our trend research, we have discovered that consumers are increasingly reaching for apple varieties in the produce aisle and this is providing inspiration for new flavor profiles," Teresa Olah, marketing manager for flavor systems at Sensient Flavors LLC, said.
The firm said its new portfolio was developed to address increasing consumer desire for fruit varietals. "Driven by the health and wellness mega trend, consumers are choosing fruit varietals as a means to diversify their diet as they embrace the notion of positive nutrition."
"While consumers are still intrigued by 'what's bad for us', there is a gradual shift to focusing on 'positive nutrition'," it added.
True-to-type flavors
The range was developed using Sensient's proprietary technologies. "Extensive sensory analysis and profiling was conducted to ensure that the true essence of each varietal was captured," it said.
Within the range there are flavors with sweet and tart tones, mellow and crisp profiles, strong aromas and vanilla or honey-like notes.
"These flavors allow manufacturers to create products with multiple apple profiles," Sensient said.
The flavor specialist has predicted that its Honeycrips apple will be one of the most popular this year.


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Glass artist Jenine Bressner's having her first solo show, opening tonight in Houston:
In the small gallery, HCCC presents Inverted Harmony: A Handmade Environment by Jenine Bressner, an installation of cascading, handmade glass chandeliers; LED lights; and layered textiles. The environment mimics lush gardens but uses bright colors and light-emitting diodes to create a surreal landscape.
Bressner's illuminated hanging gardens are made of lamp-worked glass, paired with laser-cut and hand-painted fabrics. The space is transformed not only from above, but also from below. Underneath each glass chandelier, the fabrics create three-dimensional quilted clouds. Thus, the gardens hang above a sky, inverting the traditional concept of what is above or below, and presenting the viewer with an elaborate and enchanted transformation of space.
Bressner describes how craft has always been a part of her life, as she grew up "making things by hand." With society's current fascination with technology, she is torn between using a machine and staying true to a handmade object. Inverted Harmony reflects these disparate aspects of her artistic process. She uses a digital laser cutter, a contemporary tool, to assist her with speed and accuracy when cutting textiles. However, her glass work continues to employ the use of traditional techniques. All of her glass is lampworked, a technique widely practiced during the 14th Century in Murano, Italy. Using a gas-fueled torch, she melts rods of glass, which are then blown and manipulated into shapes using various tools.
Inverted Harmony: A Handmade Environment by Jenine Bressner
January 22 – March 13, 2011
Houston Center for Contemporary Craft
Opening Reception: Friday, January 21
Ruffled Accessories Workshop: Saturday, January 22
Handmade Nation Film Screening / Bressner Gallery Talk
Saturday, January 22, 6:00 – 8:00 PM/8:15 PM
Join Make: Community Today


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Parshat Beha'alotcha
Aharon is taught the method for kindling the menorah. Moshe sanctifies the levi'im to work in the Mishkan. They replace the first-born, who were disqualified after sinning at the golden calf. The levi'im are commanded that after five years of training they are to serve in the Mishkan from ages 30 to 50; afterwards they are to engage in less strenuous work. One year after the Exodus from Egypt, G-d commands Moshe concerning the korban Pesach. Those ineligible for this offering request a remedy, and the mitzvah of Pesach Sheini, allowing a "second chance" to offer the korban Pesach one month later, is detailed. Miraculous clouds that hover near the Mishkan signal when to travel and when to camp. Two silver trumpets summon the princes or the entire nation for announcements. The trumpets also signal travel plans, war or festivals. The order in which the tribes march is specified. Moshe invites his father-in-law, Yitro, to join the Jewish People, but Yitro returns to Midian. At the instigation of the eruv rav - the mixed Egyptian multitude who joined the Jewish People in the Exodus - some people complain about the manna. Moshe protests that he is unable to govern the nation alone. G-d tells him to select 70 elders, the first Sanhedrin, to assist him, and informs him that the people will be given meat until they will be sickened by it. Two candidates for the group of elders prophesy beyond their mandate, foretelling that Yehoshua instead of Moshe will bring the people to Canaan. Some protest, including Yehoshua, but Moshe is pleased that others have become prophets. G-d sends an incessant supply of quail for those who complained that they lacked meat. A plague punishes those who complained. Miriam tries to make a constructive remark to Aharon which also implies that Moshe is only like other prophets. G-d explains that Moshe's prophecy is superior to that of any other prophet, and punishes Miriam with tzara'at as if she had gossiped about her brother. (Because Miriam is so righteous, she is held to an incredibly high standard.) Moshe prays for her, and the nation waits until she is cured before traveling.
Street Heater
"Miriam and Aharon spoke against Moshe regarding the Cushite woman that he had married." (12:1)
Imagine a Native American who has spent all his life on the reserve in Canyon de Chelly, Arizona, finding himself on the East Side of New York City around 29th and Lex. He walks down the street and stops. His attention is riveted on a nearby window. Straddling the window is a rectangular metal box about three feet long by eighteen inches high. It blasts out hot air, chugging away in a relentless mechanical symphony. He lifts his eyes. Brownstone apartments rear upwards to the sky. And in each and every window he sees the same metal boxes. Hundreds of them. All are belching out hot air into the humid Manhattan sky.
He thinks to himself, "These white men must sure love the heat. It must be 102° and they still put these contraptions in their windows to heat the street!"
Sometimes an air conditioner can look like a street heater.
When Miriam found out that Moshe had separated from his wife, she thought that he had become conceited. She thought that Moshe viewed himself as being so close to G-d that he had risen beyond a normal marital relationship. She thought that this self-imposed monasticism was a product of an inflated ego. Of course, what would be considered conceit in Moshe would to us appear humility beyond anything we have ever seen or experienced. We have no parameters to equate our concepts of conceit and humility to Moshe. But, on that exalted level, Miriam thought that Moshe had succumbed to pride.
But how could Miriam have thought that Moshe was acting out of pride? The Torah itself calls Moshe the "humblest of all men." Surely Miriam knew the Torah's evaluation of Moshe. How could Miriam have even suspected his motives?
Moshe may have been the humblest of all men, but he wasn't a shlepper. Being humble doesn't mean walking around with a hunched back and a miserable look on your face. Moshe knew that he was the king. But he also knew that compared to G-d, he was nothing. His humility lay in understanding, like no man before or since, exactly how small he was compared to G-d. It was because Moshe worked on himself to this point that G-d concretized his awareness by speaking to him 'face to face.' Then Moshe's humility became visceral. He could 'see' how small he was.
Humility is not something you can judge from the outside. Sometimes someone may seem very humble, but inside they are watching everyone watching them being humble. They are starring in their own mental movie called: "A Life of Total Humility." On the other hand, a king may appear to behave in a rather grand fashion, whereas inside he genuinely sees himself as totally unworthy.
Sometimes things aren't quite the way they seem. Sometimes a cool air conditioner can look like a street heater blasting out its own hot air.


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Our favorite work in progress & not quite serious anime RPG Lips of Suna bumps its release number to 0.8 (change-log).
I know what you are thinking... |
Comment away below or in our forums.
- New player model and animations contributed by gruntunbur.
- Lots of sound effects contributed by qubodup.
- More powerful animation blending.
- Performance improvements.
- Better eye, face and hair color customization.
- Fixed the AI not being able to use many kind of weapons correctly.
- Procedural map area placement and planning system.
- Procedural dungeon generation with corridors, rooms, treasures and monsters.
- Balanced the movement speed and physics behavior of player characters.
- Terrain chunks close to the player character load much faster.
Addition (2013-11-21): Now there are also windows binaries available.


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SIGGRAPH 2013, the 40th International Conference and Exhibition on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques, occurs in Anaheim, California, from July 21 to 25. Sponsored by the Association for Computing Machinery, the conference is expected to attract 20,000 professionals eager to learn about advances across many technologies. The event has long been considered a breeding ground for significant new areas of research.
When principal researcher Andy Wilson attends SIGGRAPH 2013, he will represent two contributions. The first is a hands-on demo of IllumiRoom, a proof of concept of an immersive living-room system that projects visualizations onto the areas surrounding a television screen, presented in April during CHI 2013. It's the sort of near-science-fiction virtual-reality experience the research community has come to expect from Wilson and the Natural Interaction Research group he manages at Microsoft Research Redmond.
Spotlight: AI-POWERED EXPERIENCE
The second, a paper Wilson co-authored with Karl Willis of Carnegie Mellon University titled InfraStructs: Fabricating Information Inside Physical Objects for Imaging in the Terahertz Region, at first appears to be a complete departure from virtual reality. The InfraStructs project pioneers techniques for reading unique identifiers embedded within 3-D printed objects. What do such techniques have in common with the human-computer-interface work in which Wilson specializes?
On the surface, nothing. Look deeper, though, and there are areas of overlap with techniques Wilson has explored over the past decade. Look farther down the road, and there's everything to do with the natural-interaction research for which he's known.
A Busy Research Career
Wilson joined Microsoft Research in 2001 after completing his Ph.D. at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
"When I was at MIT, I was lucky to be with the MIT Media Lab," Wilson says, referring to the research laboratory famed for interdisciplinary projects and numerous groundbreaking inventions. "That was an exciting place, an environment that could've been a tough act to follow. But I've been with Microsoft Research now for 12 years, and it's been even better. I've had the good fortune to work on a wide variety of really interesting projects and to collaborate with first-rate scientists."
Wilson's achievements since joining Microsoft Research, though, have not resulted solely from good fortune, says Eric Horvitz, Microsoft distinguished scientist and managing co-director of Microsoft Research Redmond.
"Andy brings intellect, imagination, and a wealth of knowledge about core scientific principles to create magic," Horvitz says. "It's been a pleasure to follow his contributions and career trajectory at Microsoft Research."
Although Wilson's graduate studies focused on pattern recognition and gesture recognition, he was also getting interested in natural user interfaces. At Microsoft Research, he jumped right into such a project.
"It was a surface-computing project, the prototype for what would become Microsoft PixelSense," he recalls, "and that was a really interesting experience. It was an exercise in multiple research disciplines where we were asking, 'What are the different ways we can use sensors to create new computing experiences?'
"Almost immediately after that, we began investigating depth cameras. Those were the early days, when we were still exploring the unique capabilities of the camera, building the initial demos, and exploring all the different techniques for working with the data."
In fact, Wilson admits to hoarding a shelf full of old depth cameras. He can't bring himself to throw them out because it's like having a small museum about the evolution of the technology.
Since joining Microsoft Research, Wilson has authored or co-authored more than 40 conference papers and contributed numerous articles to research journals on topics ranging from multitouch, gesture-based interfaces, display technologies, and depth cameras, to natural user interfaces.
And now he's exploring the future of 3-D printing?
3-D Printing as a Research Topic
"A lot of people see 3-D printers simply as tools for rapid prototyping," Wilson says. "We want to think about 3-D printing more deeply and approach it as a research topic. InfraStructs brings terahertz scanning into 3-D manufacturing. It opens up new possibilities for encoding hidden information as part of the 3-D fabrication process."
The term terahertz (THz) refers to electromagnetic radiation that falls between frequencies of 300 and 3,000 gigahertz (0.3 to 3 THz), with wavelengths of one millimeter or shorter. THz frequencies enable high-resolution volumetric imagery to be sensed accurately from precise locations inside an object.
"Karl (Willis), who was an intern and the first author of this paper, was intrigued by the new terahertz scanners," Wilson says, "and I knew he would be doing something interesting with sensing or display technologies. If you think about what we do, it's really about sensing and display."
The premise behind the project is that 3-D printing offers a way to embed information inside physical objects as a cost-effective part of the manufacturing process. InfraStructs is a prototype that demonstrates the feasibility of such a process, from designing and fabricating coded "tags" as unique identifiers to scanning inside a printed object to read and decode the information on those tags. The benefit of such an approach is that manufacturers can embed unique information—serial numbers or even simple programs—in coded tags by designing them as part of the 3-D printed product. This overcomes the need to insert radio-frequency ID (RFID) tags or electronic chips, which add to manufacturing cost and complexity, or using bar codes, which must be applied externally and are vulnerable to tampering.
"It has to do with the waveforms you get when the scan penetrates the object," Wilson explains. "We are able to distinguish between transitions in the material, void or non-void, by measuring the reflection distance. We investigated a lot of the really early depth-camera technologies, and at some level, it's all consistent with that line of research."
Enhancing Computer Interactions
There is a clear relationship between Wilson's previous work and InfraStructs, but how does the ability to read embedded tags relate to richer interactions between people and computers?
Wilson sees potential uses for InfraStructs beyond manufacturing. He sees the concept applied in future applications such as customized game accessories with embedded tags for location sensing; tabletop computing with tangible objects sensed through other objects beneath them; and, when the technology becomes more portable, mobile robots with THz range finders that can recognize objects in the surrounding area.
What he finds exciting is the notion that objects themselves can be deeply coupled to software that has been designed to sense them. Furthermore, the tags could contain code, not just serial numbers.
"Down the road," he says, "a program reads the object, and embedded within the object are further instructions, perhaps even code that can be read and compiled to further interrogate the object. There's been some work in this direction using RFID tags. We talk about 'the Internet of Things,' and I would argue this fits into that vision."
Viewed from this perspective, it's clear that InfraStructs' innovative synthesis of seemingly unrelated technologies fulfills SIGGRAPH's primary goal: to promote leading-edge advances in computer graphics and interactive techniques.
At Home with Scientific Challenges
Pushing the boundaries of natural computing interactions is the perfect environment for Wilson. It involves working with multiple computing disciplines and emerging technologies, challenges that appeal to his imagination and scientific curiosity. It's a good thing, too, because his personal life barely allows time for outside activities.
"My wife works full-time," he says, "and we have two small children. By the time I get home, make dinner, get the kids to bed, spend time answering emails, and read a paper or two, it's time to go to bed. I will probably have to put off hobbies until the kids have left home, but I'm really lucky because I love my work. It's hard to think of hobbies that could compete with all the fascinating people and technologies I encounter every day."
During SIGGRAPH 2013, Wilson and Willis are sure to attract attention with InfraStructs. The project is leading-edge, featuring the convergence of two nascent technologies. It's an example of how research can shape technology by pushing boundaries to discover feasible uses and applications.
For Hugues Hoppe, Microsoft Research Redmond principal researcher, research manager of the Computer Graphics Group, and a member of this year's Technical Papers Committee, SIGGRAPH is an industry highlight.
"SIGGRAPH is one of the most exciting conferences of the year," Hoppe says, "not only because it introduces amazing innovations across multiple disciplines of computer graphics and interactive techniques, but also because what's presented is always of exceptional quality. Microsoft Research is proud to contribute to 19 technical papers this year that cover a wide range of research areas. We're also very pleased that we will be sharing two projects, IllumiRoom and Foveated 3D Display, as part of SIGGRAPH's live, hands-on Emerging Technology demos."


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Safety Tips
Safety Indoors
- Be wary of isolated spots - apartment laundry rooms, underground garages, parking lots, or offices after business hours. Walk with a friend, co-worker, or security guard, particularly at night.
- If you come home and see a door or window open or broken, don't go in. Call the police from a public phone or neighbor's home.
- Know your neighbors so you have someone to call or go to if you're scared.
- Make sure all doors (don't forget sliding glass doors) and windows have deadbolt locks, and use them. Install a peephole in the door and make sure to keep entrances well-lighted.
- Never open your door to strangers. Offer to make an emergency call while someone waits outside. Check the identification of any sales or service people before letting them in. Don't be embarrassed to phone for verification.
Safety Outdoors
- Always lock your car - when you get in and when you get out.
- Avoid walking or jogging alone especially at night. Stay in well-traveled, well-lighted areas.
- Be careful if anyone in a car asks you for directions - if you answer, keep your distance from the car.
- Don't hitchhike, ever, and don't ever pick up a hitchhiker.
- Have your key ready before you reach the door - home, car, or office.
- If your car breaks down, lift the hood, lock the doors, and turn on the flashers. Use a Call Police banner or flares. If someone stops, roll the window down slightly and ask the person to call the police or a tow service.
- If you think you're being followed, change direction and head for open stores, restaurants, theaters, or a lighted house.
- Look around your car and in the back seat before you get it.
- Park in areas that will be well-lighted and well-traveled when you return.
- Wear clothes and shoes that give you freedom of movement.


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Last year, Jesse Mendes almost qualified for the CT. Last week, he almost won a major QS event in Newcastle. Today, he won the Australian Open of Surfing. How's that for upward toil?
of water onto the podium. "So that's what I did."
Surfing his best meant laying it on rail. It meant going north of the lip every chance he got. It meant watching CT surfer Julian Wilson start the final with an 8.37 and a 9.33, then responding with two of the highest scores of the event. Victory didn't come to Jesse. Jesse came to victory.
And now, he leads the QS rankings. The Australian leg hasn't been so kind to Jesse in years past, so you better believe it feels good for him to leave with two huge results. You also better believe it's going to be this kid's year. Trust us. "Almost" is over.
Images courtesy of the WSL


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World Refugee Survey 2009 - Kuwait
- Document source:
17 June 2009
Although Kuwait continued to reject categorically Iraqi asylum seekers, it hosted around 35,000 Iraqis, most of whom entered on three-month visit visas and then overstayed. An estimated 6,000 Palestinians lived in Kuwait, many of them having arrived between 1948 and 1967, although the Government considered them expatriates. Kuwait hosted an undetermined number of Ahwazi Arabs from Iran.
Due to Kuwait's 1959 nationalization law, an estimated 80,000-140,000 people in Kuwait, called bidoon or bidoon jinsiya (Arabic for "without nationality") are stateless. The law established that only individuals settled before 1920 or with "sufficient ties" to the country would be considered nationals. As a result of the law and subsequent provisions, approximately 100,000 biduns, a majority of whom are Palestinian or Iraqi refugees, members of Bedouin tribes, and their descendents, in Kuwait are still left without legal status.
2008 Summary
There were no reports of refoulement in 2008. Kuwait did not deport persons who claimed to fear persecution in their home countries. There were no reports of wrongful death of or injury to any refugees or asylum seekers in Kuwait.
The Kuwaiti government did not officially grant refugee or asylum status throughout 2008. During the year Kuwait granted citizenship to 573 bidoon after determining sufficient ties to the country. However, over 80,000 citizenship requests by bidoon lacking substantial proof of ties were still pending at the end of 2008. The government maintained that a majority of bidoon were hiding their actual origins.
In July, thousands of migrant workers, mostly from Bangladesh, held protests for better working conditions and pay. The police used force to disperse the protests rounded up and later deported roughly 1,000. After the protests, the Government introduced a minimum wage for cleaners and security guards working for companies with Government contracts.
In November, the Council of Ministers revoked Kuwaiti citizenship from five individuals whom they deemed ineligible for citizenship. Despite the government's investigation of the cases, no additional information had been provided at the end of 2008.
Law and Policy
Refoulement/Physical Protection
Kuwait is party to neither the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees nor its 1967 Protocol. There is no national system to determine refugee status, but the Government works with UNHCR to allow some protection to refugees and asylum seekers. Kuwait ratified the Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and its two Protocols (the Protocol of Suppression and Punishment of Trafficking of Women and Children as well as the Protocol against Emigrant Trafficking). Kuwait is a destination country for trafficked persons, primarily from Sri Lanka, India, Bangladesh, and the Philippines but also from Ethiopia and Eritrea.
Kuwaiti law prohibits the deportation or forced exile of citizens, however the government can revoke citizenship and deport individuals for various causes including felony conviction.
The only way to enter Kuwait for asylum is on 3-month visit visas. Many return to their country after their visas expire, reentering later to avoid violating Kuwaiti residency laws. Others contact UNHCR, which intervenes to prevent Kuwait from deporting asylum seekers.
Under the provision of the 1959 Alien Residence Law, Kuwait regards refugees as foreign residents, reserving the right to deport them, like all foreigners, without trial, if they threaten public security, the public interest, or morals.
Since Kuwait immigration regulations prohibit local settlement, UNHCR submits the cases for resettlement to third countries.
Detention/Access to Courts
Kuwait detains refugees and asylum seekers until they agree to return or make other travel plans, rarely granting them residence and the right to work in Kuwait.
Freedom of Movement and Residence
Kuwait generally provides for freedom of movement within the country; however, there are numerous laws constraining foreign travel, and the government placed some limits on freedom of movement through arbitrary travel bans, particularly for the "bidoon". Some laborers reported in 2008 that they were not allowed to leave the residential camps where they lived.
The Government did not cooperate with the UNHCR or other humanitarian organizations in providing protection and assistance to refugees, asylum seekers, or the bidoon.
Right to Earn a Livelihood
Kuwaiti laws do not provide for the granting of asylum or refugee status and rarely grants them the right to live and work in the country.
Recognized "expatriates" holding legal residence permits and UNHCR protection certificates can work under a Kuwaiti sponsor. Each national can sponsor up to five foreign workers.
The Government grants workers the right to unionize but excludes over half a million domestic servants and an unknown number of marine employees. It rules further that each occupational trade can have only one union. Foreign private sector workers can join but not lead unions. Foreign workers have to live under the sponsorship of a registered Kuwaiti company, and cannot change employers without the latter's approval during their first two years in Kuwait.
Labor laws do not protect domestic workers from abuse. They fall under the jurisdiction of the MOI rather than the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor, which regards such cases as criminal matters rather than labor disputes.
In early 2008, a prominent opposition MP proposed doing away with sponsorship requirements for expatriates who have lived in Kuwait for 40 years or more.
Public Relief and Education
Kuwait does not have a system of public relief for foreigners. The neediest refugees receive assistance from UNHCR, which assists the Kuwaiti Red Crescent and the government-run Zakat House in providing basic humanitarian aid. Unlike nationals, foreigners have to pay yearly fees to the Ministry of Health for medical coverage to obtain or renew residency or work permits. They also have to pay additional fees each time they receive medical care.
This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.


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This article is more than 1 year old
Dead network provider arms Rustock botnet from the hereafter
McColo dials Russia as world sleeps
McColo, a network provider that was yanked offline following reports it enabled more than half the world's spam, briefly returned from the dead over the weekend so it could hand-off command and control channels to a new source, security researchers said.
The rogue network provider regained connectivity for about 12 hours on Saturday by making use of a backup arrangement it had with Swedish internet service provider TeliaSonera. During that time, McColo was observed pushing as much as 15MB of data per second to servers located in Russia, according to Paul Ferguson, a security researcher for anti-virus software maker Trend Micro.
The brief resurrection allowed miscreants who rely on McColo to update a portion of the massive botnets they use to push spam and malware. Researchers from FireEye saw PCs infected by the Rustock botnet being updated so they'd report to a new server located at abilena.podolsk-mo.ru for instructions. That means the sharp drop in spam levels reported immediately after McColo's demise isn't likely to last.
"It's going to take a little while before we probably see the spam levels go back up again, at least from those botnets," Ferguson told The Register. Because McColo was cut off so quickly after regaining connectivity, botnet operators were probably not able to update as many nodes as hoped, he added. Rustock is capable of sending 30 billion spam messages per day, according to researchers from anti-virus provider Sophos, which also witnessed the Rustock transition.
The arrangement between the McColo and Telia had been in place for more than a year, according to an individual at Giglinx, a California-based reseller of wholesale bandwidth that brokered the deal. The IP address used to reconnect McColo had been allocated to the "CWIE Holding Company," which claimed to process credit cards. Telia quickly pulled the plug once researchers learned it was linked to McColo.
Ferguson said it was more than a mere coincidence that McColo waited until Saturday, more than four days after being disconnected, to use its backup link with Telia.
"It seems suspicious to me that they waited until Saturday afternoon on the assumption that people don't work on the weekends and it would take at least until Monday before somebody could actually take any action on it," he said. Ferguson's report, which was co-written by researcher Jart Armin, is available here (PDF alert). A video illustrating the incident is here. ®


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Global Climate Models and the Southeast Pacific
Scientists run Global Climate Models (GCMs) on fast supercomputers as a way to study Earth's climate. Scientists are constantly trying to make these models better so they can produce more accurate results. Climate is not the same everywhere in the world. There are some places where it is relatively easy to model the climate. There are other places where it is tricky to get realistic results from climate models. The Southeast Pacific, near the west coast of South America, is one of those tricky places!
Why is it so tricky to model the climate of the Southeast Pacific? Partly because there are a lot of connections between the land, ocean, and atmosphere in that area. Climate models have many different parts: the ocean, the clouds, the atmosphere's chemistry, and so on. In some places, these different systems influence each other a lot. That means the overall GCM only works well if the connections between parts of the model are good. It is challenging to get all of those relationships right in the Southeast Pacific.
The Southeast Pacific is also difficult to model because it is connected to other places around the globe. The occurrence of El Nino and La Nina are influenced by the climate of the Southeast Pacific. These events are also connected, however, to places in the Western Pacific thousands of kilometers away and even to phenomena that occur in the Atlantic Ocean. Climate model connections that span the globe are especially challenging for scientists to accurately describe and predict.
VOCALS scientists hope to improve modeling of the Southeast Pacific both to help with regional weather and climate forecasting and to improve Global Climate Models overall. They hope to better model cloud formation and rainfall patterns in the Southeast Pacific. They want to better understand how upwelling of cold ocean waters in coastal regions influences climate. They hope to get a better picture of the roles of aerosols in cloud formation, and they want to understand the extent to which different aerosols and low-level marine cumulus clouds reflect away incoming sunlight.


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Multigrain Oatmeal Sandwich Bread
In seeking a tasty and healthy bread for my 6 year old son's lunch box I've been looking to create a sandwich loaf that is in large part whole wheat flour and other grains, yet has a somewhat soft crust (you know children: they don't appreciate the best part of good bread), and fine and soft texture. It should hold up well for PB&J as well as cheese, turkey etc.
Multigrain Oatmeal Sandwich Bread
Today was baking day for me and I made up a new recipe. It started with a variation on Peter Reinhart's Struan from his "Whole Grain Breads," but ended up with substantial modifications. What remains is the "epoxy" method which has always worked well for me since I learned about it. As you can see from the picture most (if not all) of my goals were reached. The whole loaf is airy, and the crust is mild in flavor and "crustiness." The color is lighter than you might expect because a substantial portion of the whole wheat flour used was white whole wheat flour. This is another one of those "fool the kids" tricks. If the bread doesn't look too brown it tastes better! (The white whole wheat does have a milder taste too).
The overall composition of the bread (not counting the oats on the outside) is 37% bread flour (I used Giusto's Ultimate Performer, organic unbleached), 35% white whole wheat flour (I used King Arthur), and 13% whole wheat flour (Giusto's), 14% rolled oats, 3.4% wheat germ (yes, that's a little over 100%, I rounded the amounts for this summary). Salt comes in at 1.85% overall, and hydration is at 75.6%. The bread flour comes in handy to provide enough gluten for a good rise (needed for good air and fluffy bread) and also helps create a milder (less WW) taste. I am not saying you need this much for the gluten reason, it is just what I ended up with and I am happy with bread that is only 1/3 refined flour. You can experiment with less if you want.
The end result was exactly what I was looking for. Within this goal, it was certainly my best ever. I know that some of you frown upon this kind of bread because it is not 100% whole wheat, it is too much like Wonderbread (not really, except texture may be somewhat), etc. I make plenty of "real" bread, but this outcome was the goal. Others have looked for this in the past (although mostly in a "white" bread), so I thought it worth sharing.
Here is the recipe (from my Dough Calculator Spreadsheet):
Multigrain Oatmeal Sandwich Bread Formula
The recipe, as given here, makes 3% extra of the soaker and the biga to compensate for what might stick to your container and utensils and doesn't (easily) make it into the dough. I bake by weight (highly recommended), but approximate volumes are given for almost all ingredients. The wheat germ, if I remember correctly, was about 5 tablespoons. Not mentioned in the formula, but I also used about 1/16 of a teaspoon of ascorbic acid powder (vitamin C) as a dough enhancer. It promotes dough strength and allows for a "lighter" product. It gets destroyed during baking, so no health benefits!
Also note, for those of you that like to judge a formula by looking at the percentages, that soaker and biga are huge percentages in the final dough. This is normal for doughs made with the "epoxy" method as virtually all flour is part of biga, starter or soaker. In fact, if there was no flour whatsoever in the final step, you wouldn't be able to use percentages, because 0 flour would result in infinite percentages for the other components. The dough calculator has a convenient "Analysis" worksheet that collects all ingredients into an "Overall dough", which is how I got the percentages mentioned above.
- Soaker: Mix all ingredients until everything is mixed well and hydrated completely. Leave out at room temperature for 12 hours (overnight is what I do).
- Biga: Mix all ingredients until everything is mixed well and hydrated completely, and then knead briefly. For a ball and place in refrigerator for 12 hours (overnight).
- Final Dough: Cut up soaker and biga each into some 10 pieces and mix them in a bowl with all other ingredients. Mix well (dough whisk, stand mixer, whatever you like) on low speed until you have achieved a good blend. This will happen easier than for doughs not made with the "epoxy" method. Continue to knead until full gluten development has been achieved. With this dough you should be able to achieve a wonderful gluten window (window pane test). Your ideal dough temperature at this point should be 78F (if you don't know why or how, don't worry about it).
- Bulk Ferment: Shape dough into a ball with tight skin and place, good side up in a greased bowl. Cover and let rise until approximately 2.5 times original size. (This happened for me in about 75 minutes in a 70F) kitchen. The dough will feel very airy! In my case no folds were necessary, but if you feel your dough s not as strong as you want (possible since the dough is fairly wet), give it a folder after 30 minutes and perhaps another after one hour.
- Divide & Pre-Shape: The recipe makes two 1.5 pound loaves, so divide the dough into two equal pieces and quickly shape each piece into a tight ball. Deflate the dough some, but not completely while doing this. Let the pre-shaped balls rest (covered) for about 15 minutes. The dough might be just a tad sticky to your hands (it should have cleared the mixer bowl). If necessary use a tiny amount of flour, or wet your hands.
- Shape & Proof: Pre-heat oven at 400F (I used a stone and cast iron pan for steam, but you can do without). Grease your loaf pans (I used spray with flour in it, you can use some butter, oil, or use parchment paper). Shape each ball into a roll/loaf, make sure seam is pinched shut, and roll the top side (seam will go down in loaf pan) in some oats that you have spread out. Place in loaf pan, seam down, oats up, and cover and let proof until a dome forms above the edge of the loaf pan (this took about 1 hour for me).
- Slash & Bake: Optionally slash the loaves (I used a curved slash through the middle). If you don't slash and you get too much oven spring you may get tearing. I happen to think the slash looks good anyway. Place on the baking stone (i you use one, otherwise straight on rack in lower third of oven) and bake approximately 25 minutes until internal temperature is 205F (or use the "thump" test if you do not have a thermometer). Make sure you rotate pans sometime in the middle to get even heating and browning. I also remove the loaves from their pans when the internal temperature is about 190F so that the sides of the bread get some more browning. Careful with that, the loaves are very fragile at this point!
- Cool & Eat: As always, let cool fully before slicing and eating. This bread freezes well. I slice the whole loaf and freeze two slices in a sandwich ziploc for easy "on demand" retrieval.
See my My Bread Adventures in pictures


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Electric Forest's "2 Day Sat & Sun" Tickets, Celebrity Chef Pop-Up Restaurant, 2013 Festival Map and More
Electric Forest's unrivaled GOOD LIFE VIP experience is almost entirely sold out. The GOOD LIFE Program – highlighted in this month's Wired Magazine for its unparalleled amenities and perks – offers onsite lodging options such as log cabins, log homes and resort hotel-style suites, a 60,000 square foot indoor water park, an 18-hole championship golf course, swimming pools, horseback riding, and more. New to the GOOD LIFE experience this year, access to Electric Forest's Woodland Kitchen + Bar, an ultimate EF pop-up restaurant brought to you by restaurateur and Top Chef season 5 champion Hosea Rosenberg. Signature dishes like the Pulled Pork Plate and New Mexican Stacked Chicken Enchilada will take diners on a culinary tour of the U.S. during this whimsical, country dining experience inside the Sherwood Forest.
Electric Forest is reminding patrons to bring food to contribute to the festival's annual Roy Price Memorial Food Drive. Named in honor of cherished Electric Forest neighbor and huge Food Drive supporter, the late Mr. Roy Price. Each year Electric Forest patrons are encouraged to donate non-perishable food items, and are thanked with an exclusive Electric Forest Food Drive poster. Food Drive partners Conscious Alliance will host the collection station located at the festival entrance, where donations are redeemed poster claim tickets. To date, Electric Forest has collected and distributed over 17,200 lbs. of food to local communities in need.
In other onsite news, Electric Forest 2013 is excited to expand on the success of last year's Electricology program. The festival's Electricology greening program – based on the science of waste reduction through the use of sustainable products, composting, recycling, and most uniquely, rewarded crowd participation – reflects Electric Forest's commitment to collaborating with fans. When festival goers bring recycling to the event's campground EcoZones, and when they properly dispose of waste inside the venue, they'll earn "EcoPoints" that are redeemable at the Electricology Store. The Electricology Store, located at the festival entrance, is the only place onsite to win signed artist merchandise, festival vendor prizes, tickets to Electric Forest 2014, access to private shows, and much more.


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We have set up a series of YouTube videos that include:
Text resizing, font style changes and line spacing. This video has no audio but shows how a user can select the magnifier on the toolbar to enlarge text without resizing the graphics – this tends to allow for more readable text when compared to zooming using the browser Ctrl+ which also enlarges the graphics. However, this feature does not work when Flash has been used within a webpage or fonts have fixed sizes or styles. The same applies to increased line spacing which is also demonstrated.
The second video demonstrates how the A.I.Type word prediction works as well as spell checking when writing a blog using WordPress. Use the HTML mode when working in the edit box rather than the Visual mode and then you will also be able to use the text to speech to aid proof reading.
The last video demonstrates the use of text to speech with the Acapela voice in both Arabic and English.


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BOSTON -- EMCannounced at its annual user conference here on Tuesday a new software add-on that increases the performance of its Data Domain appliance by an average of 50%.
Data Domain's new "Boost" software, which acheives the speed increase by offloading parts of its de-duplication process to backup servers and thereby freeing up CPU cycles, now only works with Symantec's NetBackup and Backup Exec backup software.
However, EMC plans to integrate the add-on with its own NetWorker software in the second half of this year.
While offloadding "finger printing," or the ability to identify duplicate data, to a data center's backup server sounds counter-intuitive, EMC said moving those functions to the media server means it, in turn, will send less data across the LAN to the Data Domain appliance. This reduces both the LAN bandwidth and appliance processing requirements.
The Boost feature on a Data Domain appliance can reduce backup traffic on the LAN by 80% to 90%, said PK Gupta, EMC's director of backup recovery systems for Asia, Pacific and Japan operations. As an example, EMC said a flagship Data Domain DD880 appliance's throughput increases to 8.8TB per hour with the Boost feature, from 5.4TB when the appliance was first introduced.
"The integration of backup software with de-duplication storage is not just about enhancing performance; it's about increasing functionality to enable a more streamlined and sophisticated user experience," Laura DuBois, a program director for storage software at research firm IDC, said in a statement.
PK Gupta, EMC's director of backup recovery systems for Asia, Pacific and Japan operations, admitted that until now, Data Domain's de-duplication appliance has been better integrated with competing backup software, "but that story is changing."
Gupta said Boost would be available for EMC's own Networker backup software later this year affording functions such as auto discovery, auto configuration, monitoring and reporting, which "are much better integrated with NetWorker than NetBackup."
Once integrated with NetWorker, the backup software will also be able to manage backups that are de-duplicated by EMC's Avamar de-duplication software, which is already fully integrated with NetWorker.
Prior to purchasing Data Domain last year , EMC already had a de-duplication product that was integrated with NetWorker. EMC's Avamar software de-duplication product, which it purchased in 2006 .
Rod Matthews, senior director of business development for backup and recovery systems, said that Avamar and Data Domain products have distinct and different use cases and being able to manage both through NetWorker will reduce management requirements.
"One optimizes use cases that are bandwidth constrained or focused on an end-point, which is Avamar scenario. Then there's the Data Domain scenario, which is optimized for a data center target environment, such as data base backup, mainframe backup, AS400s," he said. "The world needs both, and we're going to offer both."
Matthews said EMC will continue to integrate Data Domain's de-duplication capabilities with other products in the future.
"The long-term strategic vision is you've got one software stack on the front end, with the Avamar and NetWorker stack are one client you get today," Matthews said. "The next step is how do we integrate the backend where there's one storage device that it all writes to. That's a longer-term project."
"Using Data Domain de-duplication with various archiving workloads in addition to things like Centera and Celerra is another place you'll see tighter integration happening," he said.
Join the CIO Australia group on LinkedIn. The group is open to CIOs, IT Directors, COOs, CTOs and senior IT managers.


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Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin
Teenage fans will enjoy this powerful book which was originally published 10 years ago to much acclaim.
This commemorative edition will ensure that a new generation or readers fall in love with Liz's story of life after life.
Death is a beginning, a new start. Liz is killed in a hit and run accident and her life takes a very unexpected turn.
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdAt 16, she knows she will never get married, have children or perhaps fall in love. But in Elsewhere, all things carry on almost as they did on earth, except the inhabitants get younger, dogs and humans can communicate and new relationships are formed and old ones sadly interrupted on earth are renewed.
A truly touching novel of hope, redemption and re-birth.
Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin, published on July 14th by www.bloomsbury.com, £7.99 for paperback or Ebook.


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BERLIN – Maryland's Critical Area laws need to be strengthened, environmental organizations say, and two bills now in front of the Maryland General Assembly are designed to improve the buffer protection law.
"The laws are clearly not working as intended," Jessi Bedell, a field organizer for Environment Maryland Research and Policy Center, said standing in front of Turville Creek this week.
Environment Maryland released a 20-page report this week called "Unprotected Shoreline: Failures in Limiting Development along the Chesapeake and Coastal Bays," which reads in part, "With weak enforcement mechanisms, broad loopholes, and 64 separate jurisdictions implementing their own standards, the Critical Area Act has failed to stop many irresponsible developments that continue to threaten the health of the Chesapeake Bay, its tributaries, and Maryland's Atlantic coastal bays."
The Critical Area laws, passed in 1984 for the Chesapeake Bay, and in 2002 for the Atlantic coastal bays, limit building within 1,000 feet of the bays and require a 100-foot wide buffer at the water's edge where nothing can be built.
Coastkeeper Kathy Phillips, who received many calls from concerned citizens last summer over huge algae mats in the coastal bays and local creeks, pointed to a clump of algae in Turville Creek and said, "That's why the critical area buffers are so important."
Masses of algae indicate a high level of nutrients in the water, and those nutrients come off the land, she said. Buffers absorb nutrients before they reach creeks and bays.
The laws are enforced inconsistently by local jurisdictions, and Maryland courts have often upheld after-the-fact variances for major violations, Bedell said.
Local jurisdictions have limited resources to enforce the Critical Area laws and receive little state help to fund what they need, according to the report.
The original act, which the Coastal Bays Critical Areas law is modeled on, has some inconsistencies and vague language, Fisher said.
"This has resulted in high approval rates in requests to vary from the law. Over 75 percent of requests are granted on average around the state," said Fisher.
Some property owners simply ignore the laws, according to the report. The owner of a hunting lodge in Wicomico County that had no Critical Area permits recently lost a seven-year legal fight. The structure must be torn down, but the coastal environment could take decades to recover, Bedell said.
House Bill 1251 and Senate Bill 844 could be a big step forward in remedying those loopholes and inconsistencies, Fisher said.
The two bills, introduced by Governor Martin O'Malley's administration, tie growth approval and planning to local and state growth plans, call for bigger buffers and put regulatory authority into the hands of a central body, the Critical Area Commission. The legislation should also hold people accountable for violations and impose meaningful penalties.
The bills, said Phillips, "are a call to arms for everyone who likes to use these waters, and wants them to stay healthy."
"If we keep it up, I'm sure we can have success in getting this through," said Bedell.
"We're very hopeful," said Erik Fisher, a Chesapeake Bay Foundation planner, said. "It's an administration bill. The administration is very interested in seeing it go through."
The organizations called for public support.
"It's really important that anyone who wants to see this strengthened, they need to contact their delegate. They need to write letters," Phillips said. "Decisions are often made based on who is in front of them at that time."


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Yes. To send faxes, the library charges $0.50 per page plus tax.
To receive faxes, the library charges $0.50 per page plus tax.
The fax number is 903-218-6893.
Show All Answers
Customers wishing to receive a library card should fill out a library card application. Adults are required to be Texas residents and are required to show name (state issued ID) and address identification. Children will need a parent signature to complete the application process. The card is free.
Yes, however you must reside within the state of Texas to be eligible to obtain a library card.
Your child must be seven years old in order to obtain a library card.
You may borrow books, DVDs, audiobooks, and many other kinds of materials. Most items may be checked out for 14 days, however, DVDs have a 7 day check-out period.
A book drop is available near the parking lot of the library for the return of books. Please note that audiovisual items must be brought inside the library and are not allowed to be placed in the book drop.
To renew by phone, contact the library at 903-984-1529. Please have your library card ready as staff will need this information.
Library materials may be renewed online with your library card number and password. To renew online, go to the online catalog and log in. Once you are logged in, select "My Account". Please note, if you do not have a password, call the library and a staff member will provide you with the information you will need.
If someone has placed a reserve on your item that you have checked out, the system will not allow it to be renewed. Also if you have an outstanding fine or have already renewed this item, or the item is overdue, your renewal will be disallowed.
A fine of $0.20 will be applied each day for items such as books, magazines, audios, or movies.
Items we borrow from other libraries through Interlibrary Loan incur $0.50 per day, per item.
If you lose an item, you must pay the current replacement cost along with a $5 processing fee.
On a first time application, you may borrow one item. After the item is returned, there is a limit of twelve items that can be checked out.
There is a limit of two DVD items and a limit of five audiobooks.
Yes, copies are $0.25 per page plus tax for standard sized paper. Color copies are $0.75 plus tax per page.
The library is located on the corner of Highway 259 (Henderson Boulevard) and North Street at:301 N. Henderson Blvd.Kilgore, TX 75662
The library's phone number is 903-984-1529.


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Sonic's Ragin' Cajun Burger Featured In USA Today
Just like the Ragin' Cajuns football team, Sonic's Ragin' Cajun burger is getting some national attention.
In this USA Today article, it points out that when the specialty burger, with the Ragin' Cajuns logo steamed on top, was made available to customers last football season, it sold incredibly well. Now, other Sonic restaurants in Louisiana, Texas and Oklahoma are implementing specialty burgers for schools in their cities.
The burgers are made with ingredients that are popular to their respective areas. For instance, the Ragin' Cajun burger features Tabasco spicy mayo and pepper jack cheese.
The Ragin' Cajun burger is set to hit Sonic restaurants in Lafayette on Monday, August 26.
CLICK BELOW to listen to an interview with Gary Wilkerson, President of Kergan Brothers, a Sonic franchise with corporate offices in Lafayette. He discusses how popular the burger has become and how this national exposure is going hand-in-hand with national exposure being given to the Ragin' Cajuns football team.


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This is a post that I am sooo excited to share with you. I feel very passionate about it because it has CHANGED MY LIFE. I recently came across the idea of making scripture journals from Shannon at The Red Headed Hostess blog and I have spent the last few months creating my own through trial and error. I want to share with you what I've done in hopes of helping you feel enthusiastic and excited about studying scriptures. It's no longer a chore for me. It's my favorite part of my day and I want it to be yours too.
It doesn't matter what religion you are. If you study the Bible, Book of Mormon, or any scripture you can apply this idea to your studying.
If you are not religious you can apply this same concept for anxiety related quotes, uplifting thoughts, positive affirmations, etc.
The best part about this is that you can be as simple, straightforward, and logical as you want, or you can get as artsy and creative as you want. Wherever you are in the crafty spectrum and have time and patience for YOU CAN DO THIS. The important thing to remember is to make this yours. Do what works for you.
Why keep a scripture journal?
Here are a few reasons:
"We often leave the most precious personal direction of the spirit unheard because we do not record and respond to the first promptings that come to us when the Lord chooses to direct us." -Elder Richard G. Scott
"I've found, as I'm sure you have, that when you are trying to learn from the spirit, it's important to make a note so it will not be forgotten. The more you not only hear but abide by what you've been told, the more the Lord will give to you. It will come more and more rapidly and you will begin to hear and feel those impressions of the Spirit more quickly than you have previously done." -Elder Gene R. Cook
"The prompting that goes unresponded to may not be repeated. Writing down what we have been prompted with is vital. A special thought can lost later in the day through the rough and tumble of life. God should not, and may not, choose to repeat the prompting if we assign what is given such a low priority as to put it aside." -Elder Neal A. MaxwellIn the few short months that I have started my scripture journals, the knowledge that I have learned and retained is more than I have learned about in years of just reading a chapter a day (which is how I used to "study").
My main reason for doing scripture journals is to give them to my children as a family heirloom after I am gone or when they are old enough to appreciate them. As Shannon said (I'm paraphrasing)- it's a way to keep teaching my children after I am gone.
I give full credit to Shannon at her blog for this idea and I thank her for all the work she put into sharing her journals. I want to help spread the word to more readers because its worth sharing if it helps people grow spiritually.
Materials Needed:
- First you have to pick some journals. This is important. You want to find some that is the right size, enough to hold lots of information, will function the way you want it to, and look the way you want it to. If you plan to keep it simple, pick a lined journal that you can do lots of writing in that has thick pages so your ink won't bleed through. I planned to be more artsy and wanted to decorate my covers using scrapbooking supplies so I bought a coptic journal kit from Etsy. When it is all done I will bind it so that it will open and lay flat.This may be a little more extreme but for me this is my creative outlet so I needed a blank canvas. Any journal will work. The way I have mine set up is I have TWO journals. One that is for chapter by chapter study and another is for Topic based study. They can be referenced to each other.
- Also get a good ballpoint pen that won't bleed through pages, or leave puddles of ink that will smudge and make a mess.
- OPTIONAL: Colored pencils, glue stick, scissors, scrapbooking supplies (paper, stickers) art supplies
What do you put inside?
This depends on you and your style. This is not a daily record of your personal thoughts like a diary. This is a record of what you have been learning during your scripture study. This means a record of quotes you want to remember, promptings, stories, talks, word definitions, scriptures you looked up, etc.
Some of my pages are purely artistic in nature. Others hold pictures that I love. Others are journal entries with my personal insights from a story, others are character analysis on the people I have been reading about.
I created a template in photoshop that I print out and glue in and write on. |
But getting it all organized is the tough part. Here is a post from Shannon that talks about how to set one up.
I Have Been Born of Goodly Parents |
UPDATE: I am now selling downloadable journal templates in the store at my other blog here if interested.
- Here are more of my journal pages and tutorials on the techniques I use.
- Here is my pinboard that I keep for my scripture journals if you want to follow that. It lists sites, talks, quotes, etc. that I plan to put in my journal somehow or art supplies I plan to use.
- The Red Headed Hostess- she even has some journals you can purchase that are already set up and ready to go (I bought a set and they are really great for outlining how to study). She is the main source for all my inspiration so you should really check her site out. I want to be her when I grow up.
- Here is a sheet you can download with some ideas from Dana Cockrum that was also taken from The Red Headed Hostess.
I hope you find this as fun and uplifting as I do. Enjoy!


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Golden Years
Take charge of the rest of your life with moderate exercise, a proper diet and a healthy social life
By Wendy Roberts
Retirement is a chance to do all the things you've neglected along the way—travel to Europe, learn how to golf—or finally get to that elusive household task, retiling the bathroom floor. But if your health is one of the things you've been neglecting all these years, you may have a hard time keeping up with your agenda.
Common health problems for those 60 and older include bone density loss, development of arthritis and cardiovascular diseases, depression, weight gain, memory loss and decreased energy and stamina. Once these age-related health problems develop, they usually worsen—if you let them.
Ed and Stella Anacker of Bozeman, Montana, are an active couple, both in their 80s, who've taken charge of their health and successfully accomplished their goals because of it. The Anackers have been married for 57 years and during that time have developed healthy routines. They walk from two to seven miles every day. They hike and have helped with the Wind Drinkers Running Club's weekly fun run since 1975. Ed instigated the annual Bridger Ridge Run, a grueling 20-mile scramble along the crest of the Bridger Range, just outside Bozeman. He hasn't run the course for the past four years, partly because of sore knees, but still carries water to the aid station near the 8,914-foot summit of Mount Baldy, a feat some people would find difficult to do in their 20s.
Stella doesn't experience joint pain, but ulcers from varicose veins in her legs limit how much she can run and bike. Once winter hits, Ed takes to the ski slopes, and Stella stays at home to shovel snow, her current favorite winter sport.
Stella has been a self-proclaimed "nutrition nut" ever since she enrolled in a home economics class in high school. Now she's the driving force maintaining the couple's healthy diet. She makes certain she and her family drink lots of water and eat low-fat foods. They cook plenty of salmon and chicken, but only small amounts of beef, and they eat lots of greens, especially broccoli and romaine lettuce. Both Ed and Stella supplement their diets with vitamin E.
The Anackers also take care to maintain their network of social support. They've always been socially active, both with friends they've met through Montana State University (where Ed taught until he retired at age 74) and with their neighbors and fellow church members. Spending time with their children and grandchildren keeps them energized, too. The formula has worked for them: moderate exercise, a proper diet, a healthy social life, and gracefully letting go of what's no longer possible.
Before starting a fitness program, changing your diet, or committing to a rigorous social schedule, it's always a good idea to consult with your health care practitioner. If you stick to the following guidelines, your senior years can be rewarding.
Get Fit
Exercise is the key to feeling good during every stage of life, and you're never too old to get started, says Sandy Knapp, a personal fitness trainer and yoga instructor at the Ridge Athletic Club in Bozeman. Knapp has many clients between the ages of 60 and 80. She suggests finding something you really love to do, such as dance, tai chi, water aerobics or stationary biking—all excellent activities for those 60 and older.
Exercising daily will increase flexibility, stamina, and strength, and enable you to perform the everyday activities necessary to live independently. Exercise also helps maintain mental function and staves off the depression that is common in the elderly.
Kathryn Borgenicht, MD, a geriatrician in Bozeman, seconds the need for cardiovascular exercise several times a week. She strongly recommends walking: Start slowly and walk a short distance, gradually adding ten minutes each day. Borgenicht also suggests supplementing walking with resistance training to deter bone loss. Postmenopausal women without estrogen replacement typically experience the greatest bone density loss, but men also start losing bone density in their 70s, so by age 80, it becomes an issue for both sexes.
Yoga is also an excellent addition to any routine, especially after age 60, since it helps lubricate the joints, which prevents arthritis, and it enhances blood flow to your brain. Gentle variations of poses should emphasize weight-bearing and balancing techniques. Many poses can be completed next to a wall or a chair, so you needn't worry too much about falling. If you're just getting started, find an instructor who has experience with older students and knows how to make your yoga practice safe and effective.
Eat Well
The Anackers' jump start on nutrition proved an intelligent choice. Aging affects many organs, and eating well may help prevent a range of health problems.
The pancreas is one organ affected by age. As you grow older, the pancreas produces less insulin. So even without obesity, you may develop diabetes. To help prevent this, limit refined sugar and flour intake, especially if you're genetically susceptible to the disease.
To assist in preventing osteoporosis, says Susan Ashford, a dietitian at Bozeman Deaconess Hospital, supplement your diet with calcium and vitamin D in addition to exercising regularly.
Greta Montagne, AHG, a clinical herbalist in Portland, Oregon, and member of the American Herbalists Guild, says it's important to lubricate the skin. Montagne says that according to Ayurvedic principles, elder years are a time when the skin dries out. She recommends herbs such as dandelion to juice up your system. Ginger, elderberry, and nettle should be added to meals or steeped in hot water to make teas—pleasant alternatives to taking bulky pills.
Stay Social
Contact with other people, especially friends and family, is another important health tool as you grow older. "Pick a fun social activity, even if it's as simple as chair exercises offered in senior homes, and go for it," says Knapp.
A proven contributor to a long, happy life, social activity also helps prevent the onset of depression, which is common for this age group, says Borgenicht. Keeping mentally active may provide protection against developing dementia. Volunteer at your local schools or with community organizations. It's never too late to get involved and make friends.
Wendy Roberts has a PhD in ecology from the University of California at Berkeley. She and her husband enjoy teaching their two young children the value of exercise.


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Stairway to Hell - A comedy about a married couple with a lot of twists and turns. A light and dark comedy about the supernatural, strange and unusal and twilight zone stuff.
Posted on July 24, 2012 at 4:32pm
Mystic Skies is an occultish type of genre' with some twists on a young boy named Frank. He discovers that his family is into the occult, but the twist is, who actually is his father? After finding out his heritage, he comes against some heavy duty questions on life, as well as, what is in this world... seen unseen.
I plan on making this into a series of books and possibly making it a 60,000 word books. Will work out what comes up.
Posted on September 5, 2007 at 1:04am
Mixed Identity is about cloning and the consequences. A thriller based novel in rough draft at the moment. Cloning has been going on for years as they have been cloning various things... now it has come to the minds of men to clone people. Some scientist say they've done it already! My novel is about society, clones, the mistakes that happen with cloning and the "What ifs" questions that occur.
Mixed Identity is now in the "editing" process and getting ready for publishing. I…
ContinuePosted on September 5, 2007 at 12:54am
The synopsis is all about a man in his late fifties. He has a wife and two teenage sons. His wife has had medical problems and the healthcare expenses are rising. Deep over his head in debt and wanting to find a better job as he has been working at a department store acting as the regional manager. However, he has hit the top with his earnings. With working sixty hour weeks, there is little hope that even a part-time job will dent his needs. One evening he is looking through the want ads.…
ContinuePosted on July 26, 2007 at 11:29pm — 1 Comment
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